Dear Parents, Guardians and Community Members,

Our sincere thanks to all students, parents and family members who attended our sharing of learning afternoon on Tuesday. It was fantastic to see students displaying pride in their achievements and setting aspirational goals.

Interim reports for students from Prep to Year 10 will be issued on Wednesday 5 April. Students are not given a rating against curriculum but receive an assessment about their work habits and engagement. The reports will also include a letter explaining the reporting and communication that families will receive in 2023. A reminder that Thursday 6 April is a student free day for K-10 students, 11/12 students attend classes as normal. Our staff are attending moderation at St Mary’s District High School. This essential process ensures that the assessments our students receive are consistent with those given to students around the state.

Final catch ups for Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 NAPLAN assessments were completed on Monday. At the outset of the process, we set ourselves a goal of – ‘Every Student, Every Question, Your Best Effort’. We are delighted by the way in which students worked to fulfil that goal. Thanks to parents and staff who encouraged, supported and equipped our students to undertake the assessments.

The refurbishment of our Year 2/3 classrooms has commenced on time and is progressing well. If all continues to go well, our Year 2/3 students will be able to move into their rooms to commence Term 3. Plans for our new agriculture facility have been presented to members of the School Association and will progress to costing after their approval.

I continue to be delighted by the energy and ideas of our student leaders. DECYP have a strong focus on student voice informing planning and our students are an outstanding example of this. Our senior leaders were selected to provide feedback into the construction of the new departmental strategic plan – the feedback I received about their input was outstanding.

Next term will see the return of primary and secondary sport. We face challenges in fielding the numbers for some secondary sports. Mrs Lowe is working hard to create opportunities for every student who wishes to participate.

We invite students to represent us in full uniform at the upcoming community ANZAC Day service. We are holding our school service on return from holidays on Thursday 27 April (see invitations to both events in this newsletter). We wish all of our students and families a safe and happy holiday period, school resumes for Term 2 on Wednesday 26 April for all students. As always, if you wish to discuss any matter related to your child’s education, please do not hesitate to make contact with us.

Kind regards

Mike

The Campbell Town Anzac Group Inc. are calling for students who would like to be cross bearers in their ANZAC Day March on Tuesday 25 April 2023.  Students will be required to wear school uniform and assemble at the Southern end of Valentine's Park between 10.15am and 10.30am on the day.  Community members are also warmly invited to participate in the march.

Enquiries can be directed to Peter Evans 0418 371 842 or Linda Evans  0477 205 172.

Last Friday, the year 7-10 My Kitchen Rules class participated in their end of term cooking challenge.  Each team chose a breakfast dish to plan, cook and serve to the judge, Mr Flanagan!  Students were judged on their presentation and of course, taste of their food!  There were some incredibly high scores and all students should be very proud of the effort they put into this task. Congratulations to our challenge winners Hannah H and Harrie!

Rachael Storay 

MKR Teacher

The introduction of the “Big Splash Challenge” at the beginning of the carnival this year was a great success! After some tough deliberation by the judges determining who the biggest splash was, the Big Splash Champion for 2023 was awarded to Billy!

This fun challenge set the stage for an awesome day of swimming competition, being courageous, being determined and having fun. It was wonderful to see so many students trying their best at races, even if it was challenging, and not giving up. As usual students were competing in a mixture of across the pool events and down the pool events including 25m and 50m of Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke.

Quite a few records were broken this year, they were the following:

Rupert – Grade 3 Boys

• 25m Freestyle
• 25m Backstroke
• 50m Backstroke
• 50m Freestyle

Stella – Grade 3 Girls

• 50m Backstroke

Congratulations Stella and Rupert!

It was wonderful to see the K-1 students at the carnival to participate in their program, especially to see how well the Learn to Swim Program has gone for these students as their level of confidence and skill in the water was impressive.

The relays are always an exciting way to end the carnival, we had some very strong teams this year and the much anticipated staff v secondary students race did not disappoint this year either with the staff coming away with a very convincing win this time.

Congratulations to all students who participated in the carnival, you should be very proud of your achievements.

Ashlee Lowe

HPE Teacher